question about airlock

[waltzbrewingco]

First of all, this is my very first home brew. My wife got me a deluxe starter kit from Northern Brew and the American Wheat Ale recipe kit for Christmas.
Question is about the air lock. instructions said to fill with about a tablespoon of the sanitized water before inserting in bung. It has two fill lines, one on both sides of the 'S' shaped lock. Fermentation had started and it seems that some of the water has either evaporated or escaped through fermentation and bubbling over.
Is there any point during fermentation thag if the water is all gone I should add more? Or is it supposed to escape?

 

[golfish67]

I've never had any "escape" but if it does you will definately want to replace it. Without water in the airlock you risk infection creeping in or oxidation. Probably won't be a problem until fermentation ends and there is no co2 pushing out.

 

[waltzbrewingco]

Funny I asked this today. It was bubbling and producing CO2 like crazy this morning, i get home from work and foam had decreased a lot and bubbles are decreased a bit too. I'm only on day 4 of fermentation. Any pointers?

 

[day_trippr]

Did you keep track of the wort temperature during fermentation?

Assuming a proper pitch for the OG, if fermentation runs on the warm side it can easily reach FG in four days or less (the warmer the quicker, up to a point). But that might not produce the ideal result, hence you usually want to keep the wort temperature somewhere in the middle of the yeast manufacturer's recommended range for the strain...

Cheers!

 

[eastoak]

use something other than water, like vodka or star san.

 

[waltzbrewingco]

Its been between 65-70° the whole time.

And I've got starsan/water in the airlock now. Not sure how to measure for such a small amount. Its 1oz/5gal of water

 

[NTXBrauer]

You definitely want to keep your airlock filled to the recommended level. Just top off with your star san mixture, which should be ideal.

 

[waltzbrewingco]

is there a way to measure enough starsan for less tablespoon of water? I don't want the ppm to be too high or at a toxic level.

 

[NTXBrauer]

I get .0007825 oz of star san per tablespoon when looking at the calculation.

Personally, I always use vodka in my airlock.

 

[waltzbrewingco]

I get .0007825 oz of star san per tablespoon when looking at the calculation.

Personally, I always use vodka in my airlock.

Lol, when someone figures out how to get .0007 oz of starsan lemme know.
But seriously vodka? I guess it wouldn't let bacteria in eh? Is this a popular method?

 

[day_trippr]

Cheap unflavored vodka in airlocks is all I use, and I expect a large portion of HBers do likewise...

Cheers!

 

[GuldTuborg]

Cheap unflavored vodka in airlocks is all I use, and I expect a large portion of HBers do likewise...

Cheers!

This.

 

[Hopinista]

I did the NB American Wheat kit a long time ago, and my primary finished in 5 days. I still left it in for 2.5 weeks anyway to let it clean up a bit.

Also +1 on the vodka in the airlock.

 

[NTXBrauer]

Lol, when someone figures out how to get .0007 oz of starsan lemme know.
But seriously vodka? I guess it wouldn't let bacteria in eh? Is this a popular method?

2.147 drops of SS per TBSP should get you there. JK


Vodka is the way to go for an airlock. I do always use SS when I have a blowoff in place.

 

[boydster]

I always keep a couple gallons of pre-mixed SS around so if I need to add some to my airlock, I don't need to use an electron scanning microscope to measure it out.

 

[theviking999]

I always use vodka or moonshine whatever I have handy...

 

[Shred]

is there a way to measure enough starsan for less tablespoon of water? I don't want the ppm to be too high or at a toxic level.

You could probably drink StarSan right from the container and not get sick. You couldn't possibly have enough in a tiny airlock to create anything toxic.

That said, I buy a gallon of distilled water and dump about 1/4 ounce of StarSan into it. It will keep forever in distilled water so you'll have enough for about 10 million airlock fills.

 

[eastoak]

i keep a 5 gallon carboy of star san in the garage that lasts for months so i don't have to mix tiny amounts.

 

[waltzbrewingco]

Good advice keeping some extra on hand.

 

[waltzbrewingco]

I did the NB American Wheat kit a long time ago, and my primary finished in 5 days. I still left it in for 2.5 weeks anyway to let it clean up a bit.

Also +1 on the vodka in the airlock.

Did it turn out alright? I suppose leaving it that long after is like giving it a secondary fermentation without moving it even though this recipe doesn't require.

 

[Beerbeque]

The water is completely unecessary unless you just like to watch the bubbles. They work fine dry and you don't have to worry about suckback either.

 

[GuldTuborg]

The water is completely unecessary unless you just like to watch the bubbles. They work fine dry and you don't have to worry about suckback either.

Am I missing something?

 

[itchygomey]

Did it turn out alright? I suppose leaving it that long after is like giving it a secondary fermentation without moving it even though this recipe doesn't require.

I find no reason to rack to secondary. Just let it ride in the primary unless adding flavoring, then I use a secondary. And for my airlock I use vanilla vodka..... Smells great and works fine.

 

[Shred]

The water is completely unecessary unless you just like to watch the bubbles. They work fine dry and you don't have to worry about suckback either.

That's not sound advice. It's not an airlock at all without liquid. The liquid is there as a barrier against things getting in. Without the liquid any number of small bugs and/or microorganisms can make their way into your beer (not to mention O2). Using sanitizer solution or liquor kills the things that find their way into the water in case of suck back.

 

[stonecutter2]

The water is completely unecessary unless you just like to watch the bubbles. They work fine dry and you don't have to worry about suckback either.

This is true, up to a point in the fermentation process. While CO2 is being expelled, water is irrelevant because nothing is going to fight the force of the CO2 to crawl in through the airlock. Once the fermentation dies down though, you have the potential for something finding it's way in to an environment that is utterly delicious for any bacteria or mold.

For an S shaped bubbler, I think some amount of liquid is important to keep the beer in a sanitized environment after active fermentation stops.

For a three piece airlock, I actually do think that liquid being necessary is quite debatable. If the airlock is sanitized itself, and used dry, the cover will rise off of the stem each time CO2 is expelled, then settle again over the stem...sealing off the fermenter. In theory, that means the fermenter stays sealed with CO2 at the top...unless the cover somehow gets stuck weird and leaves the stem exposed.

Nevertheless, putting extra Starsan or OneStep or whatever in the airlock is easy enough to do, you have nothing to lose by doing it, and I imagine you're just dumping some of it down the drain anyways, right? Why not use it to lessen your chance of screwing up a batch of delicious brew?

 

[stonecutter2]

Good advice keeping some extra on hand.

Yep, just keep an eye on your garbage or recycling items. If you have any jars or bottles with sealable lids (I use our daughter's juice containers) then clean them well, and rinse well, then put some leftover starsan or onestep (oxygen based cleaner) in the container and seal it. Should be handy to keep a bit around in case you need to refill an airlock, or you have to sanitize something in a pinch like a turkey baster to thieve a sample out of the fermenter

Sidenote, I like OneStep for my airlock as it doesn't make bubbles like starsan does while fermentation is going on. I generally like Onestep anyways because i make 1 gallon batches a lot, and it's easier to measure for smaller amounts.

 

[boscobeans]

Yep, just keep an eye on your garbage or recycling items. If you have any jars or bottles with sealable lids (I use our daughter's juice containers) then clean them well, and rinse well, then put some leftover starsan or onestep (oxygen based cleaner) in the container and seal it. Should be handy to keep a bit around in case you need to refill an airlock, or you have to sanitize something in a pinch like a turkey baster to thieve a sample out of the fermenter

Sidenote, I like OneStep for my airlock as it doesn't make bubbles like starsan does while fermentation is going on. I generally like Onestep anyways because i make 1 gallon batches a lot, and it's easier to measure for smaller amounts.

I put 3 ml (drug store medicine syringe cheap if not free) in a 1/2 gallon growler of RO water. I also keep a spray bottle of the mixed solution on the sink and use it everyday for more than just beer.

bosco

 

[Beerbeque]

Am I missing something?

I think maybe so.
Beer has been made for thousands of years without those modern airlocks and still is by many commercial and homebrewers. I usually just use a piece of plastic film or inverted plastic cup over my better bottles and have never had any problem.
Read this: http://www.brewery.org/library/OpenFerm.html

and this about Pasteur's famous experiment:http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/scientific-experiments/scientific-method5.htm

 

[stonecutter2]

I think maybe so.
Beer has been made for thousands of years without those modern airlocks and still is by many commercial and homebrewers. I usually just use a piece of plastic film or inverted plastic cup over my better bottles and have never had any problem.
Read this: http://www.brewery.org/library/OpenFerm.html

and this about Pasteur's famous experiment:http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/scientific-experiments/scientific-method5.htm

I'm pretty sure the ancient Egyptians had three piece airlocks, but they were made of like papyrus or something ;-)

 

[Shred]

I'm pretty sure the ancient Egyptians had three piece airlocks, but they were made of like papyrus or something ;-)

I'm pretty sure their beer was inconsistent and tasted like ass.

 

[stonecutter2]

I'm pretty sure their beer was inconsistent and tasted like ass.

Oh really? Have you asked an ancient Egyptian recently about their beer? Or was this detailed in some tomb hieroglyphs somewhere. What makes you so sure?

If it was bad or a total pain to get good results, why would they keep making it?

 

[GuldTuborg]

If it was bad or a total pain to get good results, why would they keep making it?

'Cause Bell's never distributed Hopslam to Egypt?


OK, now to respond to the airlock issues. I'll actually have to look over the replies before ethat.

 

[GuldTuborg]

I think maybe so.
Beer has been made for thousands of years without those modern airlocks and still is by many commercial and homebrewers. I usually just use a piece of plastic film or inverted plastic cup over my better bottles and have never had any problem.
Read this: http://www.brewery.org/library/OpenFerm.html

and this about Pasteur's famous experiment:http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/scientific-experiments/scientific-method5.htm

That's a more detailed post than most, but it only helps convince me that I'm not missing anything.

I'll grant you that a dry airlock of either common variety is effective at keeping out harmful microorganisms over a short period of time, but that's about all it does. Most of use demand a bit more out of our airlocks, so to say they "work fine dry" is at best a gross overgeneralization based off a limited intended use. I like my airlocks to, amongst other things, prevent fruit flies from getting in my saisons in the summer, slow the ingress of oxygen when aging a bigger beer, and so on. In short, I expect my airlock to function as an airlock, which it does not do when dry.

I'm not sure how ancient techniques of brewing and open fermentation are relevant to the discussion, either. Open fermentation is best done with certain strains of yeast and has its own set of techniques. Kräusen is often skimmed during the height of fermentation, beer is generally racked and sealed (from air) once it's fallen, etc. Most of us either don't know or don't generally practice those techniques. The same goes with ancient brewing methods. What we know of older beer (and here I'm talking over 100-200 years old, yet not too far back) is that wild yeast and other "infections" were common in aged beers. If we don't want beers like that, or don't know the techniques of the time to prevent such events, then we'd better use airlocks.

So while I appreciate your thoughtful reply, I suggest you're very wrong when you say airlocks function just fine when dry. I'm not saying you need to use them to make great beer, but as a suggestion to a new brewer to not bother filling their airlocks with water, it's a terrible idea. The techniques you're suggesting work very well for those that learn and practice them effectively (and badly for those who don't, I'll point out), but assuming that others do as a matter of course only inhibits helpful dialog and advice giving.